THE GREENSHANK 197 



a Goosander in her fisliing operations when I heard, 

 coming from the moss at the end of the loch, yelping cries 

 which at this far distance sounded for all the world like 

 the call notes of the Peregrine Falcon. But a nearer 

 approach showed me that a Greenshank was uttering 

 her call of alarm, and, as I considered that she must have 

 young somewhere near, I lay on the edge of the moss and 

 kept under observation the area from which the parent 

 bird had risen. 



After a time there emerged from the long, mossy 

 grass a young Greenshank, which bobbed and curtsied 

 in characteristic manner as it surveyed the scene, which 

 it imagined to be clear of danger. From the anxiety of 

 the parent bird, I imagined that the youngster could not 

 yet be capable of looking after itself, but as I walked up 

 to where it was standing, it took wing without hesitation. 

 Its mother at once joined it, and together they disappeared 

 from sight, the adult bird still uttering her cry of alarm. 



Another nesting site of this interesting bird which I 

 visited in June of 1914 was on the fringe of the Green- 

 shank country. 



It was late in the evening as the stalker and I ap- 

 proached the nesting ground. For the first time in his 

 experience, the whole of the forest had failed to produce a 

 single Greenshank's nest ; not even a scrape had we been 

 able to discover, and so it was satisfactory to hear the 

 alarm note of the bird as she moved elusively above the 

 pine trees to our right. After a search we came across 

 several scrapes, and then, situated against a fallen branch 

 on a strip of heather burnt during the spring, the nest 

 itself. The eggs had hatched safely off, to all appearances, 

 for the nest contained small fragments of chipped shell, 

 but the young must have left some days previously, 

 and we did not see any traces of them. It is worthy of 

 mention that one rarely, if ever, sees a pair of Greenshank 



